It was a gorgeous day as we were departing Twin Mountain; I was ready to stay longer but we needed to get to Bar Harbor, Maine. Our destination, the Bar Harbor Campground, doesn’t accept reservations and it’s the closest campground to Bar Harbor and the surrounding Acadia National Park. I called and was informed that if I would get there by mid-week, I wouldn’t have any problem getting a site. Because I didn’t want to risk it, so today we headed toward the Atlantic Coast and Mt. Desert Island.
Just ten minutes after leaving the KOA campground, I observe this weird looking dog doing a strange lope across the road about 100 yards in front of the truck. When I get closer, I see that it’s not a dog at all but a black bear cub!
Like Vermont, New Hampshire is also very narrow on its east/west border, so within no time at all we were in Maine, the last state I needed to visit in the lower 48. Now I have only one more state to visit and I will have been to them all, Alaska.
Marianne still has four states left, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Dakota, as well as Alaska.
We arrived at the Bar Harbor Campground about mid afternoon, and upon checking in, were informed that there were still a few sites left with full hook-ups, and more without sewer, and even more without anything. Their policy is to let you find a site you like, set up your campsite, and then come back to the office and pay for that site. And they don’t accept credit cards, only cash, $40/night. Pay for six nights and you get the seventh one free.
We were glad to get in when we did, because we think we got the last great site in the entire park, a super huge spot with a big shade tree and centrally located. With the Fourth of July just days away, we decided not to risk going anywhere else because we believed that every campsite in the Northeast, or anywhere else in the country, will have been taken. So we decided to stay here until Monday, the day after the 4th.
In early September 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain ran aground on a rock ledge believed to be just off Otter Cliffs, a short distance from present day Bar Harbor. When he came ashore to repair his boat he was met by the local natives, the Wabanaki Indians, who seasonally fished, hunted and gathered berries, clams, and other shellfish in the area. Champlain named the island Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains" — now called Mount Desert Island, the largest in Maine.
First settled in 1763 the community was incorporated in 1796 as Eden, after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman. In the 1840's, the rugged maritime scenery attracted the Hudson River School and Luminism artists like Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, William Hart and Fitz Henry Lane. Inspired by their paintings, journalists, sportsmen and "rusticators" followed. By 1880, there were 30 hotels, with tourists arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island. The rich and famous tried to outdo each other with their entertaining and their estates. In 1918, Eden was changed to Bar Harbor, after the sand and gravel bar, visible at low tide, which leads across to Bar Island and forms the rear of the harbor. The name would become synonymous with elite wealth. It was the birthplace of vice-president Nelson Rockefeller in 1908.
In mid-October 1947, Maine experienced a severe drought. Sparks at a cranberry bog near the town ignited a wildfire that would intensify over 10 days, and not be declared out until mid-November. Nearly half the eastern side of Mount Desert Island burned, including 67 palatial summer houses on Millionaires' Row, 170 permanent homes, and five historic grand hotels were also destroyed. Over 10,000 acres of Acadia National Park were ravaged. Fortunately, the town's business district was spared, including Mount Desert Street, where several former summer homes within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places are now operated as inns.
The campground had excellent WiFi coverage as well, so I didn’t have to use my Verizon wireless broadband to connect, since last month I was almost to my maximum limit of 5Gb. But I will admit that this was the first time I had used it as extensively I had, and Marianne uploading her scores of photos pushed us very close to that limit.
Using their WiFi, I logged on to one of my bank accounts and transferred money from savings to checking. Since it was at the same bank, I was credited with the funds immediately. I then walked to the office and used their ATM (how convenient, since they don’t accept credit cards) and tried to withdraw $500 because I hate paying those ATM fees especially when the banks pay a paltry 1% on certificate of deposit accounts.
But no, I could only withdraw a maximum of $300, plus the $3 service charge – 1%. Armed with my fresh cash I paid $120 for three nights, knowing that I would have to hit another ATM with another service charge to pay for the additional three nights I wanted to stay.
Six nights is the longest we have elected to stay anywhere; this place is not only beautiful, but there are many things to do here, for us it would sightseeing, bicycling, kayaking, shopping, and relaxing – plus eating lobster.
This was the first place we had been to where I needed to put a sweater on as the sun was setting. In fact it was getting downright cool! And when the night came the temperatures dropped low enough that I fired up the electric ceramic heater inside the trailer, for the dogs, since we like sleeping when it’s cooler. Heck, Marianne always sleeps with a small fan just above her pillow, blowing on her all night.
For all there is to do here, we sure didn’t do too much this first day here.
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